Paul’s Pick: a Free Article from Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft

Every month, Paul Chase in the Penn Press Journals department invites our blog readers to download a complimentary article from one of our many scholarly journals.

Magic, Ritual, and WitchcraftPaul's Pick for September is "Current Trends in the Application of Cognitive Science to Magic" by Edward Bever at SUNY College of Old Westbury.

Bever writes that "evolutionary psychologists have developed increasingly sophisticated, although still controversial,theories explaining in terms of natural selection the reasons that specific cognitive capabilities became hard-wired into our brains." Yet, he observes "Historians of magic have paid relatively little attention to this fundamental change in our understanding of how the mind works."

Bever's article will appear in the Summer issue of the Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft.

Click here to download this free article and learn more about the interdisc.

Check the Penn Press Log in October for Paul's next pick.